[pianoplayer88key]

Ok I'm about to pull the trigger on the Phonak Audeo PFEs, but before I do... I just want to be sure I won't regret getting the Etyomtic HF5s instead.

How do they compare for durability, isolation & sound quality?

Also, due to durability concerns, I want to not regret buying these, having them fail within a couple years, and realize I should have just saved my money and bought another $10-15 pair at Walmart or something like that.

Also should I order directly from the company, or see if I can buy it locally? The closest places to me, according to their website, are Scripps Clinic, ~30 miles away, or North County Audiology, ~26 miles away. Also I have a dental appt tomorrow before 11am (I thought it was Thursday but it's not) and I'd like to have something by then. Should I get a cheap pair at Walmart or somewhere to tide me over, or fork over the extra $25 for quick FedEx shipping (according to their website it'd get here by 10:30am if I order today)?

Also, I don't think I'd call myself a basshead in the sense of liking a thumping hip-hop bass line, but I DO appreciate quality bass sound from the 32-foot (16 Hz) or 64-foot (8 Hz) pedal tones on a good pipe organ or a good Bosendorfer/Fazioli/Schimmel/Bechstein/etc concert grand piano. In fact, recently on a piano forum someone called me a bassaholic after I made a post on there saying that a 12-foot Rubenstein grand piano was the only piano that has an acceptable bass tone, and a 9-foot Steinway or 9-foot-6-inch Bosendorfer just is "not worthy of existing" because they don't at least match or beat the 12' Rubenstein.

Or, where else can I buy them? I was just browsing the PFE appreciation thread, and if I'm reading one post correctly, it looks like someone got them under $100.

 

[Young Spade]

The PFEs are amazing. Go look at the growing threads about the quality of them. People are picking these over the current top IEMs.

 

[Lucille]

Order directly from Phonak, they ship fast... Be patient and await their arrival, and when they do show up, get ready to Rock'n Roll Daddy-o!

 

[bakhtiar]

A good/decent headphones amp and DAC, can do wonders to PFEs, even without EQ or bass boost. Perfect match with Diana Krall's jazz albums and philharmonics orchestra. Everything just so crystal clear, just like sitting at the performer's/conductor's/singer's standing point. I am not sure whether this kind of sound you like, but, I do really enjoy it.

Or, look around for IE8, but, before that, just try the PFEs first

...

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Just ordered from their site (audeoworld.com). Paid for overnight priority shipping, as I want them tomorrow if at all possible. (If I wasn't going to do that, I would have dropped $20-25 (the shipping cost I paid) on a cheap pair tomorrow morning anyway so I could wear a pair to my 11am dental appointment tomorrow.) I hope I didn't order too late (4:55pm) in the day.

Now... if these aren't everything the reviews say they are, and most importantly, don't last at least several years without any signs of breaking (possibly excepting them replacing them - i've heard some really good stories of their customer service so far), I'll be extremely upset, and wishing I had only paid $20 for a pair (due to durability issues of previous IEMs and headphones I've had over the past 10-15 years).

Ok... now would someone plz reassure me that I did the right thing by spurning the Etymotic HF5s I was looking at....

 

[polska9]

you always have 14 days to try them out. i havent listened to the ety's but i was in the same position a week ago looking for new headphones and trying to decide what to get. i got the PFE's and i am extremely happy as they are amazing!

 

[PG21]

Went to a dealer locally and they didn't have them in stock. I think they order it for you just as you would online.

 

[LeonWho]

It's going to be better than the HF5's.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucille /img/forum/go_quote.gif Order directly from Phonak, they ship fast... Be patient and await their arrival, and when they do show up, get ready to Rock'n Roll Daddy-o!

I ordered them today at 4:55pm, and selected FedEx Overnight Priority shipping, hoping to receive them by 10:30am tomorrow so I could have some headphones to listen to at a 10:45am dental appointment less than 2 miles from my house. Did I order too late in the day? The order status is still unbilled and unshipped as of 8:04pm.

 

[gadgetman]

PFE's are great.

If you want something that lasts you a long while, look for a company that backs the product with a long warranty. I'm not sure how long the warranty on these PFEs are.

PS: What's with tomorrow morning's dental appointment? Do they play such horrible music in the waiting room? Is the dentist a hot audiophile you want to impress?

 

[pianoplayer88key]

The PFE has a 2-year warranty.
I like to have my own music playing loud enough to drown out the sound of the drill that will be used on me while I'm in the dentist chair, and use earphones that can isolate out the sound, too. It's a little late now to push my dental appointment back another day or two. It's already been postponed due to my having the flu this past week, which I'm still not completely over yet.

Also, I'm getting these, because they were highly recommended, I liked what I was seeing in the reviews, and I'm hoping they'll be 1000s of times more durable than all the previous pair of headphones/earphones/canalphones I have ever owned combined.

And, not having music playing in headphones while getting my teeth scraped and drilled at the dentist is, IMO, comparable to having a root canal done by a non-dentist without anasthesia. It is fortunately an experience which I have not been subject to, and I don't want to ever subject myself to that unless the only other alternative is going to hell.

 

[centerfold]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pianoplayer88key /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just ordered from their site (audeoworld.com). Paid for overnight priority shipping, as I want them tomorrow if at all possible. (If I wasn't going to do that, I would have dropped $20-25 (the shipping cost I paid) on a cheap pair tomorrow morning anyway so I could wear a pair to my 11am dental appointment tomorrow.) I hope I didn't order too late (4:55pm) in the day. Now... if these aren't everything the reviews say they are, and most importantly, don't last at least several years without any signs of breaking (possibly excepting them replacing them - i've heard some really good stories of their customer service so far), I'll be extremely upset, and wishing I had only paid $20 for a pair (due to durability issues of previous IEMs and headphones I've had over the past 10-15 years). Ok... now would someone plz reassure me that I did the right thing by spurning the Etymotic HF5s I was looking at....

Don't know if they will last for years upon years (or if they are 1000 times more durable, that's kind of stretching it I think), but they do honor their 2-years "no questions asked" warranty. My left bud has a slight chip on it exactly like another head-fi member, and they shipped me a new pair immediately. Didn't ask any questions, just saw the picture I told me they already shipped me a new pair in the first email they returned.

Normal shipping takes two days to get from Tennessee to Canada using FedEx.

I have not experienced Etymotic products but I must say that I was on the look for a pair of ER4's after hearing about the sound signature that I would probably enjoy, but some of the things that threw me off were: microphonics (I've heard that they are not the best at that), design (they look like they stick out to me..), and its unforgivingness to poorly recorded music. When I heard that the PFE's were being compared to the ER4's I took this over them, because it was stated that they were more forgiving on the source, there was an increase in quantity of bass as well as good quality of bass, pretty decent design, and the price was right too, I don't regret purchasing PFE's at all, even after the chip on my 'phones (thanks to their great customer service).

*I could be wrong on my ER4 impressions, but those were my reasons why I couldn't invest in them !

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Quote:

Originally Posted by centerfold /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't know if they will last for years upon years (or if they are 1000 times more durable, that's kind of stretching it I think), but they do honor their 2-years "no questions asked" warranty. My left bud has a slight chip on it exactly like another head-fi member, and they shipped me a new pair immediately. Didn't ask any questions, just saw the picture I told me they already shipped me a new pair in the first email they returned.

Well.... I don't expect to have them survive a direct hit from a cluster of hydrogen bombs, or be used to lift an airfield full of Airbus A380s off the ground, but they may be stressed a bit physically, usually accidentally, occasionally to near piano string tensions.
Glad to hear about your excellent experience with the customer service, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by centerfold /img/forum/go_quote.gif Normal shipping takes two days to get from Tennessee to Canada using FedEx.

Tennessee? When I ordered (I'm in California) I had to pay sales tax, that led me to believe they'd be shipping from in California. Would that still likely be true?

Quote:

Originally Posted by centerfold /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have not experienced Etymotic products but I must say that I was on the look for a pair of ER4's after hearing about the sound signature that I would probably enjoy, but some of the things that threw me off were: microphonics (I've heard that they are not the best at that), design (they look like they stick out to me..), and its unforgivingness to poorly recorded music. When I heard that the PFE's were being compared to the ER4's I took this over them, because it was stated that they were more forgiving on the source, there was an increase in quantity of bass as well as good quality of bass, pretty decent design, and the price was right too, I don't regret purchasing PFE's at all, even after the chip on my 'phones (thanks to their great customer service).

So what's your impression with the bass on the PFEs, as well as the general sound? For example, how does this compilation of piano clips sound? In the first half, I'm playing a 12-foot grand piano on which the lowest note is a C at approximately 16.35Hz, and I play that note at least once by itself. I recorded that with a dirt-cheap microphone that probably didn't have much response below about 200 Hz, so it probably doesn't do it justice. In the second half, I'm playing a Roland RD-700sx on which I've modified the settings to allow me to play as low as a C at 4 Hz. This was recorded via direct line-in.

 

[radagast85]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pianoplayer88key /img/forum/go_quote.gif So what's your impression with the bass on the PFEs, as well as the general sound? For example, how does this compilation of piano clips sound? In the first half, I'm playing a 12-foot grand piano on which the lowest note is a C at approximately 16.35Hz, and I play that note at least once by itself. I recorded that with a dirt-cheap microphone that probably didn't have much response below about 200 Hz, so it probably doesn't do it justice. In the second half, I'm playing a Roland RD-700sx on which I've modified the settings to allow me to play as low as a C at 4 Hz. This was recorded via direct line-in.

The Audéos' frequency response starts at 5 Hz so you definitely won't be able to hear that 4 Hz note... besides I think there aren't that many sources actually capable of reproducing that low a frequency.
I also just noticed that the file you put up is a 128 kbit/s mp3, remember you're on head-fi

 

[centerfold]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pianoplayer88key /img/forum/go_quote.gif Tennessee? When I ordered (I'm in California) I had to pay sales tax, that led me to believe they'd be shipping from in California. Would that still likely be true?

From there website:
Quote:

US Orders Sales tax will be charged if shipping products to California or Tennessee.

I assume you had to pay a $15 sales tax, as well as whatever price it is for you for shipping (Canadian purchases only get one type of shipping I believe and it cost $24.95) If you check your tracking number, it should tell you where the order was processed from. Mine was processed in Brentwood, Tennessee.

As for the bass in that recording, the bass (not the extreme low bass notes) come out just fine. Strong attack, a good sustain, and enough of a decay to make the notes not mud up the upper register. The notes on the treble side come out pretty well too. Sharp (not the tuning! haha) and quick. The extreme low registers (I'd make note references, but I do not have perfect pitch my interval training is ever-so-rusty) are present, but they are more 'pulsey' than they are tones (if that made sense). Which makes sense I suppose as even the low notes on an upright (an A?) sounds more of a wave than a straight tone, and since a grand would reach far lower, that kind of sound would be more audible. To me though, in the first recording (on the cheap mic), some of the extreme lows did not resonate like a piano tone, which may be because of the mic not picking up certain overtones, but the other notes came in fine. On the Roland, it was more or less the same idea. Since we are listening at 4 Hz, where the human hearing is supposed to begin at 20 Hz, I wasn't expecting to hear a piano-like tone in the first place (I didn't expect to hear anything haha, but I do recall someone once telling me the reasons that humans can hear the pedal tones of an organ, even if they are said to be under the frequency of the human threshold of hearing, but I have long forgotten the explanation). I am never really good at explaining myself, but I hope that made sense.

Also, in the case of any audio gear you purchase, if you are going to subject them to "near piano string tensions", they are not bound to last long.